Starting August 1, 2025, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) system in India will undergo significant changes aimed at reducing system overload and preventing outages. In a circular, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has directed banks and payment service providers (PSPs) to limit the use of 10 key Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) on the UPI network by July 31, 2025.
The 10 APIs include essential functions such as balance inquiries, transaction status checks, and autopay mandate executions. The goal is to reduce the load on the UPI system and prevent outages. By implementing these limits, NPCI aims to ensure a more stable and efficient digital payment experience for users.
"Banks and Payment Service Providers must make sure they watch and control all API requests (in terms of speed and transactions per second limits) sent to UPI for proper usage (both customer-started and system-started requests)," the circular dated May 21, 2025, states.
The NPCI circular warns that non-compliance with the new API usage guidelines may result in consequences such as API restrictions, penalties, suspension of new customer onboarding, or other measures deemed fit by NPCI.
NPCI has prescribed the following restrictions:
- Balance Enquiries: Limited to 50 checks per app, per user, per day. This means if you're using multiple UPI apps like Paytm and PhonePe, you'll have 50 balance checks on each app.
- Linked Account Queries: Restricted to 25 queries per app, per day, with explicit user consent required.
- Autopay mandates will only be executed during non-peak hours (outside 10 AM-1 PM and 5 PM-9:30 PM). Each mandate will have 1 attempt with up to 3 retries, operating under controlled transaction rates.
- Transaction Status Checks: Banks and apps must wait at least 90 seconds before checking transaction status after authentication. Only 3 status checks are allowed within a 2-hour window per transaction.
- Non-user-initiated API calls will be restricted during peak hours (10 AM-1 PM and 5 PM-9:30 PM) to reduce system load.
Compliance and Audits:
- Banks and payment service providers must submit undertakings by August 31, 2025, confirming they are queuing and throttling API calls properly.
- Acquiring banks are required to undergo annual system audits by CERT-In empanelled auditors, starting August 31, 2025.
These changes aim to ensure the stability, speed, and reliability of the UPI system, particularly during high-traffic periods. Users may need to adjust their habits, especially heavy users, but the changes are designed to benefit the overall digital payments ecosystem.
